Self-funded foundation of Clintons’ gives $1.6M

The Clinton Family Foundation has a New York address, but its giving continues to benefit several nonprofit groups across Arkansas, Internal Revenue Service records show.

The charitable organization, which is funded entirely by the former first family, distributed more than $1.6 million last year to dozens of educational and charitable institutions across the country.

The largest amount — $602,027, was given to the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation, a separate nonprofit group that supports the Clinton

Presidential Center while also promoting economic opportunity, global health and public service. The organization has offices in Little Rock and New York City.

The Chappaqua, N.Y.based family foundation routed another $227,000 to a variety of Arkansas groups.

The Thea Foundation in North Little Rock received $100,000. The organization, which promotes arts education, honors the memory of Thea Kay Leopoulos. Her father, Paul, has been friends with Bill Clinton since grade school.

Since Thea Kay Leopoulos’ death in 2001, Clinton has been one of the organization’s biggest benefactors, serving for years on its board of directors and helping it raise money.

For a small nonprofit, “those kinds of gifts are very, very few and far between, so we are extremely grateful,” said Nick Leopoulos, Thea’s brother and the organization’s executive director. “We count ourselves very lucky to have that kind of support.”

Another $50,000 went to the Arkansas Arts Center Foundation in Little Rock. During his time as governor, Clinton and his family regularly visited the Arts Center. Daughter Chelsea also participated in its Summer Theatre Academy, according to the organization’s website.

Thrive Inc., a nonprofit design and economic development firm based in Helena-West Helena, was given $ 40,000. The organization is led by Will Staley, whose mother, Carolyn Staley, grew up next door to Bill Clinton in Hot Springs.

Thrive recently celebrated its 10th anniversary. It seeks to train and equip young people while also promoting the Delta and working to foster improvements, such as street murals and hiking trails, Will Staley said.

The Clinton family’s support was crucial, particularly at the start, Staley said.

“If it wasn’t for them with their initial backing over the years, then we certainly wouldn’t be here,” he said. “They believed in us early on, and it really opened a lot of doors for us.”

“We’re lucky because Bill Clinton, especially, and Hillary have always had a huge heart for the Delta,” he said.

Philander Smith College in Little Rock received $5,000. The donation honors the memory of one of its alumni, Carol Willis, who died on Sept. 4, 2018. Clinton had called Willis “one of my most effective and trusted campaign aides and advisers.” The foundation made a similar donation in 2018, as well.

Other gifts benefited the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service ($25,000); the Clinton Birthplace Foundation in Hope ($5,000) and the University of Arkansas at Monticello Foundation Fund ($1,000), as well as Little Rock’s Sculpture at the River Market Inc. ($1,000). That gift helped pay for artwork marking the centennial of women’s suffrage.

“We were absolutely thrilled that the secretary [of state] wanted to be a part of this important sculpture for the city of Little Rock,” said Jane Rogers, the group’s president.

The Clinton Family Foundation received $988,806 in securities last year from the former president and from the former secretary of state.

The former Arkansas governor serves as its president, his wife is its secretary-treasurer, and their daughter is its director.

As of Dec. 31, it showed net assets of $1.13 million.

None of the Clintons are paid for their service.

Between 2014 and 2019, the family foundation donated roughly $11.5 million to charity, according to their most recent 990-PF form.

A family spokesman said the former president and his wife have consistently given 10% of their income to charitable causes.

Since its launch in 2001, the foundation has consistently supported educational institutions that helped pave the way for the Clintons’ success.

That pattern continued in 2019, with $100,000 going to Yale Law School, where both Clintons studied. Hillary Clinton’s undergraduate alma mater, Wellesley College, received $50,000, while $50,000 was directed to Americans for Oxford Inc. (Bill Clinton is a former Rhodes scholar.) Sidwell Friends School in Washington, D.C., where Chelsea Clinton studied, received $10,000.

The family also earmarked $ 200,000 for the George Washington University Medical Faculty Associates, a nonprofit physician group affiliated with the school. The Rodham Institute, which seeks to “achieve health equity in Washington, D.C.,” is named in honor of the former secretary of state’s mother, Dorothy E. Rodham, and is housed within George Washington’s School of Medicine and Health Sciences.

Several of the gifts benefited institutions in Chappaqua, the Clintons’ adopted hometown roughly 35 miles north of Manhattan, including $20,000 for First Congregational Church of Chappaqua; $5,000 for the Chappaqua Volunteer Ambulance Corps; and $5,000 to the Making Headway Foundation, which assists the families of children with spinal cord or brain tumors.

Two organizations in Mount Kisco, which borders Chappaqua, also benefited: Neighbors Link, which serves immigrant families, and the town’s United Methodist Church. Each received $5,000 contributions. Another $5,000 went to Friends of the Rockefeller State Park Preserve, also in Westchester County, N.Y.

The list of other beneficiaries ranged from Boston to Belleveue, Wash., and featured several New York City institutions that were also 2018 recipients: The Africa Center ($50,000); the American India Foundation ($ 20,000); the School of American Ballet ($35,000); the Girl Scouts of Greater New York ($5,000); and New York Public Radio ($1,200).

The Thea Foundation in North Little Rock received $100,000. The organization, which promotes arts education, honors the memory of Thea Kay Leopoulos. Her father, Paul, has been friends with Bill Clinton since grade school.